Why More Gay Couples Are Embracing Surrogacy

When we moved house nearly four years ago, we soon met the other gay couple in the street – they had brought up two boys in a ‘merged home’ – ex-wife, husband-turned gay and gay partner all under the same roof. For a long time earlier straight relationships had been the commonest means by which gay men found themselves fathers.

From the 1990s, hundreds of hopeful gay men agreed to “donor dad” or co-parent arrangements with single women and lesbian couples here in Australia. Sadly, many of those men found themselves cut out of the lives of the children they had fathered. Many were left yearning for kids of their own.

One of the biggest barriers to accepting my own sexuality as a 23-year-old back in 1990 was the certainty than I’d forfeit the chance to be a dad. A decade later, surrogacy started to be talked about – though it was always associated with celebrities, or uber-expensive US options.

In recent years, I’ve met hundreds of gay guys who have either raised the funds to create a family overseas or found a surrogate here. It turns out there are so many ways to engage in surrogacy.

Take Michael and Jarred. Six years ago, this Brisbane couple found a local surrogate Rachel Kunde who was willing to use her own eggs and womb – what’s called traditional surrogacy – to help them create twin boys Huxley & Elijah, who are now four years old. For Rachel, providing her eggs as well as her tummy comes naturally – she’s since carried for other couples too.

A year after our own girls were born via surrogacy in India I met with the then Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to convince him that his plan to ban gay men from accessing surrogacy in Queensland was a stupid one. Luckily, he listened.

by Sam Everigham – news.com.au, May 11, 2016

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